Saratoga News Photograph by Scott Lechner Flying High Gliding: It's the next best thing to being a bird By Sarah Lombardo When most people want to enjoy nature or be adventurous, they head to the backyard for a little gardening, or to the woods for a little bird-watching or even to the nearest mountain for some climbing. Saratogan Jim MacDonald, on the other hand, heads to Hollister for a little soaring. MacDonald first became interested in soaring years ago when he attended a seminar. The De Anza College chemistry teacher was looking for some excitement and walked out of the seminar eager to take to the sky. Although few people would argue that the life of a chemistry teacher is full of thrills, probably even fewer would suggest taking to the sky for a little engine-less flying as a cure for the doldrums. Unless they knew what MacDonald did before he was a teacher. "I was a pilot in the Navy," MacDonald says. "After choosing a teaching career, I needed something to stimulate me." Then he found the seminar at Foothill College about gliders. "So I got hooked," he says. That was 1975. Today he's also a member of the Bay Area Soaring Associates (BASA), a local glider club. MacDonald's love of flying goes back to his stint in the Navy during the Korean War where he served as a fighter pilot. So does MacDonald ever have the urge to liven up a soar in a glider with a little dogfight in the skies? No, but a reference to Hollywood's Top Gun image of Navy pilots evokes a laugh. "Ninety-five percent of a pilot's time isn't so exciting as Hollywood would have you believe," he says. "But the other 5 percent makes up for it." As for soaring, MacDonald calls it fascinating. "What's so special about it is that you feel much closer to the environment around you because you are in a much smaller vehicle," he says, describing the seemingly effortless soar through the air with nothing but a rush of wind for noise. "It's just a very special way to be in the atmosphere." MacDonald's Navy experience would lead many to assume that learning to soar in a glider would be a piece of cake. And although learning to fly is, essentially, learning to fly, no matter what the vehicle, there are differences between flying and soaring. "The main difference is that a glider is much more sensitive to flying in perfectly controlled scenarios," MacDonald says. A regular plane offers a little "wiggle room" if the weather conditions aren't perfect or if a control here and there isn't set just so. But not a glider. A glider pays attention to every change in the wind and every move of its joystick. That means, MacDonald says, that a trip up in a glider has to be carefully planned, and that sometimes bad weather simply means a canceled soaring session. But, MacDonald says, soaring is still worth it. "It's that feeling of being like a bird." MacDonald isn't just taking to the air himself. Sometimes he takes others with him. He participates in a program sponsored by BASA in which children are given rides, free of charge, in gliders by experienced club pilots. The program takes place once a month and is designed to spark interest not only in the hobby of soaring, but the science and engineering that make it possible. "It's a sort of movement to try to get people going on the art of soaring," MacDonald says. The idea began when Drew Pearce, who runs Soar Hollister, a company that sells glider rides every weekend at the Hollister Municipal Airport, heard about a group that offers rides to children in experimental planes. The idea behind the "Young Eagles" program was to teach children about, and spark interest in, experimental planes. Pearce thought the program would adapt perfectly to BASA. "There's always about six kids there," MacDonald says. "I don't know where they hear about it, but they're there." [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.